SHEN

Wake up, or you'll wake up six feet down

Earth-Chan was cruel long before The Light. No, not Earth... the people who lived on it. They like to pretend they don't deserve the fate that smiles upon them now - that in the face of disaster, in spite of being given a second change to make it all right and survive anyways, in spite of all they've done to deserve this, that this is all some tragedy. "How could this happen to me?" they say, as they beg and they plead to some god to save them. But the gods aren't smiling upon them, and for once in their miserable lives, there's no one there to save them but themselves. How weak they are, when put to the test and forced to have to learn to survive for themselves. How hollow their lives. It's pitiful really - some don't even survive the tutorial.[break][break]

But now I'm feeling so disgusted[break]
By the "have its" and the "have nots"

Trigger Warning: Implied Sexual Abuse, Human Trafficking, Death, Abuse, and lots of lovely stuff

Should it be a surprise though, from one such as Xiang? That his opinion could be so cruel, it's only a natural course of action. A young boy, with no parents to speak of once upon a time. If they were killed, he wouldn't know it, if they abandoned him, he wouldn't be surprised, but the streets were not kind, and the people unfriendly. Some watched after him when he was younger, surely they must have, else he would have merely perished, and he knew some of the older children who occasionally took pity. But they all starved, and with little to go around, they were all desperate. Some were taken in by authorities for theft, others like himself made themselves sick eating refuse. Later in life he'd think to be angry that people could want so much and yet take it all for granted, to waste so much of a good meal, but as a child, uneaten food was a free meal.[break][break]

Sickness was better then the burning starvation that ate at one's entrails until it felt like one could hardly stand, hardly walk, feverish and weak. Get too weak and... well, Xiang had seen all too well what happened to those who couldn't make it. He'd also seen those who vomited themselves to death, coughed their lungs out, and suffered through stabbing stomach pains, but at least sometimes with sickness, if you were lucky, either it would pass or death would be quick. So he took his scrapes, too him beatings, and took his small victories, more a wild animal than a boy, living in back alleys and ratty blankets.[break][break]

No one notices when gutter rats and street urchins vanish though. And the market is always looking. Xiang had usually assumed when someone he knew went missing, they had died or been caught by authorities. By the time he realized there were other options, it was too late to start sleeping with one eye open. Be it pleasure, medicine, or servitude, human lives... they always had a value in the underground.[break][break]

Feel the fear and swallow back the tears

Xiang should have considered herself lucky once again in life. Even scrappy and starved as she was, all gangly and gaunt, she was considered passingly pretty compared to some and ripe for the picking. The alternative was to have her all carved up to take the useful parts out and leave the rest to refuse after all. So she was handled a bit, fed proper meals, given better clothes, and forced into submission. She bit and fought and clawed, but that wasn't uncommon with those who hadn't lost their spirit yet. Some people liked that, so they didn't break her spirit entirely, just made it clear who her masters were and her position before they put her properly to work.[break][break]

She lost something intrinsically human to her, but from it, she grew stronger. Her fire never died, and Xiang may have stumbled and fell, but she would pick herself back up. She refused to be broken, and struggled to find some semblance of power in her position. There was little to be had at first - she was owned. Property. Even the thought of free will was too human, she owned nothing and was nothing, but she found a way none the less. The clients - the unsavory sorts who came to request such services. Some of them were beyond reasoning with, they hurt her to get what they wanted, but others...[break][break]

Others Xiang could speak with. Could work with. And when the cards finally fell right, she found a way to convince one that her loyalty would never need be questioned for the lifestyle they held if she were free of the one she had, and she could make it far more enticing. She had more to offer then just what they were getting now. Maybe it was the look in her eyes, her resolve and determination, or the cold authority she exuded when she took control of her services, but they were willing to bargain. And with that bargain came the first taste of freedom.[break][break]

Tell me that I'm cutthroat[break]
I think you got your eyes closed

Xiang became a member of the triad, and took on a new last name in the fashion of his boss. And while he stumbled at first, nothing but a clueless duckling with charisma and wits to serve him, he quickly adapted and adjusted. He was motivated to succeed, and knew in his heart that meant not hesitating. So he watched, he learned, and when blood was spilled and bones were broken, he made sure not to turn away. He worked diligently, and acted mercilessly, and with some honeyed words, whispered threats, and a little bit of preparation at every turn, he made a name for himself.[break][break]

The gambling houses were his best works though, and eventually he was given complete dominion over one. To control the games, bring in the patrons, handle the deals behind the curtains, and most importantly, collect on the debts. All of it under the table of course - not a single thing about it was endorsed, but such was the nature of vice and sin. It was a display of the depravity of the common man, desperate to take a shot of grandeur, to drink, and dream, and forget his duties in an unforgiving nation that had too many people within it's walls to possibly care about them. [break][break]

He had power. And with it, Xiang commanded fear, for there were few, if any, he truly had even the slightest sliver of a heart for.[break][break]

There's nobody but me here[break]
The killer in the mirror

The Light. Yes, she remembers sitting on the roof calmly waiting to see it. The news that it had changed trajectory didn't disturb her as much as it should, there was a sort of inevitability to not having a way or place to hide from it. But nothing really happened of devastation... just a beautiful image, like the aurora across the heavens. Society slowly changed, but it mattered little to her or her line of business. It wasn't until the monoliths and the message that she cared.[break][break]

Honestly, she enjoyed it more than she should have. She was apathetic to the carnage in the streets when the tutorials began and the monsters spawned, but in her own way, even if she didn't particularly want all those people she didn't know to die, she saw it for what it was, in it's simplicity and wonder. Survival of the fittest. This was not the end of the world for Xiang, nor even the beginning of a new one. It was a transition; a metamorphosis. Like a caterpillar emerging from it's cocoon, for better or for worse, Earth had changed. And so must the people on it if they want to survive. No, but she wanted to do more. She could thrive.